Capt. Bob Taft on the Top Gun 80 out of H&M Landing left Friday night on a two-day trip to waters some 150 miles south, where a spotter plane saw schools of what look to be 30- to 50-pound bluefin tuna.

Taft’s trip is in the wake of good news from the south. Two long-range boats, the Royal Star and American Angler, had good scores on bluefin tuna, with the fish ranging from 60- to 106 pounds. Even though they were at 400 miles south, it still has ocean anglers thinking those critters with fins will make their way closer to San Diego and give them a lot more productive season than the past few paltry ones.

“The sign of this fish is right where we want it to be this time of year,” said Capt. Mike Keating on the Spirit of Adventure at H&M Landing.

As much as Keating would love to see big bluefin bite for his long-range anglers, he knows another species would do more for the entire fleet.

“What our fleet needs is albacore,” Keating said. “Bluefin is what really gets long-range guys excited, but albacore is the bread and butter, and that’s what we desperately need. For a lot of guys here it’s a make or break year.”

Capt. Chuck Taft, who is Bob Taft’s brother, agrees with Keating.

“If it doesn’t happen this year, we’re done,” Taft said. “Bluefin won’t do it for us. They just don’t bite consistently enough. We need albacore. But no one really has looked for it yet.”

Keating likes the local sign, not just schools of anchovies, but schools of calico bass in the kelp.

“I’m doing a lot of swimming out in the kelp beds and there’s really a lot of bass in the water out here,” Keating said. “We haven’t seen that in a few years. But something is different this year. There’s an uphill flow, and it looks normal out in the kelp beds this year.”

At Fisherman’s Landing Tackle Shop, Doug Kern heard a reliable report about bluefin as close as South Island, on the weather side, of the Coronado Islands.

“If by some miracle they started catching 100 tuna a day in one-day range I think everybody would dust off their gear and go,” Kern said. “People have been sitting and waiting the last two, three years and I think everybody has a pent up desire to go catch a tuna. We saw the salmon guys up north go through their deal where there was no salmon, and now they’re having a great salmon season. Guys couldn’t get a spot on the launch ramp up north. It’s been our turn in the barrel and it’s time to reverse it. When it goes off, it will feel like the old times.”

Rick Maxa, also at Fisherman’s Landing Tackle Shop, said he can’t wait for it to happen.

“This place gets such an electric feeling when the fish bite, a palpable thing, you can just feel it around here when the fish go off,” Maxa said.

Kern said it’s not just about the fishing, either. He said it’s about boat-owning captains holding onto their boats. A number of boats have been surrendered to the bank in the last few years. Others are on the brink, as Chuck Taft alluded to.

“Every industry goes through a shake-out, and this industry has been through it,” Kern said. “Whoever survived will do well. It will get back to normal. Hopefully it’s this year.”

Kern agreed with Keating that albacore is the straw that will stir the summer drinks for the fleet.

“For some reason albacore is the big fish that everyone sees,” Kern said. “But if we had kelp-paddy yellowtail, or yellowfin, dorado, any of that stuff will help if it’s close enough for one-day range on the sport boat, within 75 miles or so.”

Kern said the poor fishing and the poor economy served up a “double whammy” for the fleet.

“Fish trumps economy here,” he said. “If anyone around here had a choice for the economy to be better or the fishing to be better, the fishing would have a bigger impact. People will find money to go fishing.”

Linda Palm-Halpain, who owns the Red Rooster III, agreed.

“Fishermen will find the money to come fishing if they know they’re going to catch something,” Palm-Halpain said. “Right now, thank goodness for yellowtail, but what really brings them out is the bluefin and albacore, but other school fish like yellowfin and dorado, if they bite.”